Information

CRESCEnt creates a cross-sectorial media and strategic communication training and toolkit aimed to empower spokespersons and journalists in efficiently and ethically addressing security threats. CRESCEnt addresses the challenge of social polarization created by the propagation of disinformation and fake news. It is a proven fact that fake news have created in Europe, and in the three countries part of the project, an acute miscommunication and lack of trust between the two professional categories we target. As the media has been pressed into reaching large audiences, institutional spokespersons were forced into communicating what is necessary and not divulging aspects which could jeopardise security investigations and public safety. A gap of trust and efficient communication was thus created and later on widened by the phenomenon of fake news. While it is indeed the media professionals that shape the way information is delivered to the public, they themselves might get trapped in particular “narratives” and share common mental frames. Recognizing that the media professionals are themselves the locus of potential influence by external actors is crucial to developing strategies to combat misinformation and hostile influence. CRESCEnt aims to address this divide through innovative solutions and multiplication of best practices of both spokespersons and journalist.

Objectives

i

To develop a toolkit of techniques, methods and instruments for institutional spokespersons and journalists who communicate on issues related to security and law enforcement, as support in their professional activity.

w

To enhance key-competences and skills of the spokespersons and journalists so that they become resilient to fake news, build an ethics of reporting, perform double fact checking, provide and obey ethical grounds in handling sources, report security threats and handle truth for the preservation of democracy and the rule of law.

Target groups

CRESCEnt’s main target group consists of spokespersons in the field of national security and LEAs. The secondary group is represented by (young) journalists who are active in the field of security.